Tag: apple

Welcome to this month’s edition of our regular software development news digest. We try to cover a few recent stories of interest to both software engineers and QA professionals. Hopefully, the insights within help foster some ideas to help your own team’s application development efforts.

If you are interested in checking out last month’s digest, simply click on the following link.

Apple actually slowing down its Software Development Process

Given that hardware – the iPhone, iPad, and even the new HomePod smart speaker – drives Apple’s enormous revenue, sometimes we forget they remain one of the largest software development companies in the world. Recently, Cupertino suffered a few highly publicized bugs in its iOS mobile operating system. Perhaps the company approaches the SDLC in a too “agile” fashion?

As such, Apple plans on slowing down the rate in which it releases iOS and macOS updates. The company hopes to increase its focus on stability and bug fixes as opposed to trying to fit a ton of new features into every release. News about Apple’s shifting development cycle appeared this month in ExtremeTech among other sources.

Major iOS version releases are now expected to take place every other year instead of on an annual basis. Given that the older iPhone battery slowdown “bug” attracted interest from the U.S. Government, it is a smart move for Apple to take a more measured approach to OS releases. It will be interesting to see how well they keep to a more deliberate schedule in a competitive computing industry.

If you want to read more on this topic, check out former Microsoft engineer Steven Sinofsky’s blog entry. Considering Sinofsky’s role in leading Windows OS and Microsoft Office development, his insights are worth your time.

Automated QA Tool Company gets Venture Capital

Giving software engineers the ability to test their code in an automated fashion remains a key part of any Agile or DevOps implementation. A Boston-based startup led by former Stackdriver principals is building an automated testing tool suitable for continuous delivery scenarios. Their nascent product shows promise as evidenced by the $10 million in venture capital awarded to their firm, named Mabl.

News about Mabl’s venture capital success appeared this week in Xconomy. The fact that Mabl’s chiefs, Dan Belcher and Izzy Azeri, sold Stackdriver – a Cloud management software company – to Google in 2014 likely helped attract funding for their new venture. In an era where continuous deployment is the Holy Grail for many companies, automated testing is vital.

At the core of Mabl’s tool is a service that operates like a virtual QA engineer. Dan Belcher described the approach of Mabl. “Think of Mabl as an extension to your QA team, like you hired a new QA person. Just as you’d train the person about your app, you train Mabl, and expect [it] to write new tests, new test cases, run tests automatically, and find defects based on an understanding of how the application works,” said Belcher.

The tool leverages machine learning routines to improve its ability to find bugs and even predict their existence. It integrates with Slack as well as other email and messaging tools. If Mabl looks like something your development team needs, explore the information on the company’s website.

That’s it for this edition of the Betica Blog News Digest. As always, thanks for reading!

With the Holiday Season in full force, many technology organizations take a few days to rest up before 2017 begins. Despite the break a few interesting stories from the software development still arose in the past few weeks. Let’s take a look and see if any recent news offers some inspiration for you and your team. If you are interested in last month’s digest, simply click this link.

How Design is transforming the Practice of Software Development

Principles from the world of design are influencing how software gets written, especially at companies leveraging Agile as their methodology of choice. This is the opinion of a December article in ZDNet. The piece explains the similarities of thought between design and Agile as noted by Matt Cooper-Wright, a senior designer at IDEO.

“Both processes seek input from beyond the team doing the work. For designers this is user research, business needs, and technology possibilities. For software development this looks more like a backlogs, user stories, and success metrics. Both processes also embrace iteration and ongoing refinement. Design is more about jumping backwards and forwards where software is the continuous loop of development — but both talk to the same notion of ongoing refinement,” said Cooper-Wright.

Faster release cycles combined with a move towards continuous deployment is a major goal of many shops embracing Agile. Design concepts come into play with elegant user interfaces that serve the needs of end-users. Involving creative professionals during the storyboarding portion of the development cycle (and elsewhere as needed) ensures the final product offers a compelling user experience.

Tom Dabson, software engineering manager at Cognizant, sums up this evolution of application development. “We use design thinking as the approach to solving problems,” Design thinking is centered around truly understanding client needs and opening yourself up to try as many things as possible before coming up with the preferred solution,” commented Dabson.

Apple slowing down Mac Application Development?

The rumors are hot and heavy that Apple is deemphasizing software development for its Mac desktop computers. Engadget reported on this potential news story in late December. Considering the lack of new Mac computers for nearly four years until the recent introduction of an updated MacBook line, it is obvious mobile devices, wearables, and streaming media are Redmond’s major focus.

The article noted the poor battery power of the new MacBook as proof Apple’s engineering focus lies elsewhere. More tellingly, an analyst for Bloomberg reported Apple no longer maintains a dedicated team working on macOS software. Tim Cook denies these rumors when speaking to the press, but the real proof is in the lack of innovation on the Mac side of the shop compared to other areas within Apple.

A quote the late Steve Jobs made to Fortune Magazine 20 years ago rings true concerning the current priorities in Redmond. “If I were running Apple, I would milk the Macintosh for all it’s worth — and get busy on the next great thing. The PC wars are over. Done. Microsoft won a long time ago,” said Jobs.

We hope everyone enjoys their Holiday season, and looks forward to a fruitful 2017. Keep returning to the Betica Blog for additional insights from the ever changing world of software development. Thanks for reading!